How to Make 2016 Your Healthiest Year Ever

January is my favorite and most committed time of the year for doing a detox program, as it is for most people.

For me, one reason truthfully is that I RETOX ‘a bit’ in December! (Don’t you? Be honest… after all, you and I are only human!)

My primary reason however, is that I am committed to make 2016 my best, healthiest and most joyous year ever…
You want that too, right?

I hope you will join me this year – see the end of this email for details on how we can detox together – and share your experiences with me as you go.

So how do we make 2016 our healthiest year ever, while keeping things simple?

Here are a few key things you can do:

1. Govern Your Portions

First step is to not overindulge too much now!

I know we are surrounded by temptations so pick and chose your indulgences carefully.

Choose a cocktail or salad plate for your meal.

Have an alkaline broth or bone broth as your dinner twice a week.

Make three-quarters of your plate veggies, greens and choose quality protein, garnish with avocado and nuts for example –that will fill you up.

Exception: Indulge in oysters this time of year for a boost in DHA!

2. Avoid your food sensitivities

For those of us with food sensitivities (and that’s most of us!), eating any of those foods creates a cascade of inflammation. This disrupts our intestinal health, which affects our neurotransmitters, which affects our cravings.

So what foods should you avoid?

The biggest offenders here are gluten, sugar and dairy, but you should also account for any other foods that you know you’re sensitive to.

Sometimes, the food we crave the most is one that we are highly sensitive to.

Good choices for a dairy substitute include coconut and almond milk. Have you had coconut whipped cream? Yumm!

Avoid the grains when you can and choose nuts and vegetables to dip with or nut crackers.

3. Avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners

Would you put sugar on lettuce? Or meat?

Most people would say “no way!” And yet, they do it every day.

Sugar is in our salad dressings… our meat sauces… you name it. There is just too much sugar in our lives, and we need to cut it out.

Plus, eating sweet food will increase your cravings… which makes it easy to slip into eating more sweet food… which increases your cravings… and so on.

And if you thought sugar was bad… artificial sweeteners are SO MUCH WORSE.

Toxicity and neurotoxicity aside, they increase cravings for sweet foods. They make us gain weight.

DIET DRINKS ARE A CRUEL JOKE!

Worst and most deadly of all, they create insulin resistance so that makes our blood sugar go up and then it’s harder to lose the weight we’ve put on.

I still like stevia and xylitol as substitutes but honestly, it is very very rare that I will use any of them.

So how do you fill that sweet craving without reaching for the sugar?

One of my favorite low-sugar treats is dark chocolate and berries topped with a coconut milk whipped cream. No dairy, no gluten, very low sugar, and no artificial sweeteners. I will top with ground cardamom and or cinnamon and or nutmeg for added flavor.

That’s just one example – what do you reach for when that craving hits?

4. Eat Breakfast!

Here, the conventional wisdom rings true: breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.

IF, that is, you eat a healthy one.

Choose healthy protein and fat for breakfast and stay low carbs.

A good breakfast could be left over dinner from last night (assuming it was a healthy dinner, of course! i.e. a piece of steak. I love smoked salmon, capers, and tomatoes!).

A really easy way to support good breakfast is to begin with a protein shake. Research states that beginning our day with a quality protein shake helps us lose weight and keep it off too.

Surprisingly bad choices are cereals, muffins, bagels, and even oatmeal (too high in carbs!). Juices are a no-no too! Sorry!

5. Add Greens!

One of the most powerful things you can do to support better health is increase your GREENS.

Enjoy a big plate of greens with dinner. In the south, we are rich in collards and chard, plus I love kale soup.

You can also get more greens via my 8 Day Vacay Reset Soup.

And of course, my own Mighty Maca does a wonderful job of helping you get your greens.

You can:

Mix it in your protein shake for breakfast

Add to your sauces for an anti-oxidant boost

Drink with hot water as a tea

Mix and drink with cold water for a refresher

Put in your cocktail or mocktail – it stokes up some great conversation!

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I first heard Dr. Cabeca interviewed in 2013 and have been following her and listening to her Sexy Younger You and Couch Talk interviews ever since! She has truly inspired me over the years -- in so many ways. In fact, I was practicing as an attorney when I first discovered her and was so inspired by all of the health/nutrition/natural and functional medicine I was learning that I have actually returned to school to attend naturopathic medical school! She is an inspiration as a doctor, mother and advocate for women's health. And I love her Might Maca Greens - in fact, I add it to my daily green smoothie breakfast. I am a stickler when it comes to purity, and I feel great knowing that I'm getting superior quality superfoods without any added ingredients or fillers and heavy metal tested! Thank you to Dr. Cabeca for all of this!